1. The seasonal change of PAHs in Svalbard surface snow.
- Author
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Vecchiato M, Barbante C, Barbaro E, Burgay F, Cairns WR, Callegaro A, Cappelletti D, Dallo F, D'Amico M, Feltracco M, Gallet JC, Gambaro A, Larose C, Maffezzoli N, Mazzola M, Sartorato I, Scoto F, Turetta C, Vardè M, Xie Z, and Spolaor A
- Subjects
- Humans, Svalbard, Environmental Monitoring methods, Snow, Seasons, China, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons analysis, Air Pollutants analysis
- Abstract
The Arctic region is threatened by contamination deriving from both long-range pollution and local human activities. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are environmental tracers of emission, transport and deposition processes. A first campaign has been conducted at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, from October 2018 to May 2019, monitoring weekly concentrations of PAHs in Arctic surface snow. The trend of the 16 high priority PAH compounds showed that long-range inputs occurred mainly in the winter, with concentrations ranging from 0.8 ng L
-1 to 37 ng L-1 . In contrast to this, the most abundant analyte retene, showed an opposite seasonal trend with highest values in autumn and late spring (up to 97 ng L-1 ), while in winter this compound remained below 3 ng L-1 . This is most likely due to local contributions from outcropping coal deposits and stockpiles. Our results show a general agreement with the atmospheric signal, although significant skews can be attributed to post-depositional processes, wind erosion, melting episodes and redistribution., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)- Published
- 2024
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